God's children; a modern allegory

j GOD'S G
CHILDREN

A MODERN ALLEGORY

JAMES ALLMAN

Class..

Book ^/\Jl

Copyright N°

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.

i

God's Children

A

Modern Allegory

JAMES ALLMAN

CHICAGO
CHARLES H. KERR & COMPANY
MCMIII

f%

THE LibRARY OF
CONGRESS,

Two Copies Received

MAY 18 1903

0 Copyright Entry

CLASS ^ XXc No

/ / Z IS
COPY ti.

II uil I " ■ ■■■'■ I r_- Ji

Copyright, 1901, by

JAMES AIRMAN

etc ; ;

Pn si edition pi.b'tis'ied April 25, i$qj

TYPOGRAPHY BY

MARSH, AITKEN & CURTIS COMPANY
CHICAGO

CONTENTS

Chapter Page

I. In Which I Introduce My God . 5
II. God Sends Mercury to Investigate

the Condition of His Children 14

III. Mercury Begins to Investigate the

Condition of God's Children and
Meets with Strange Experiences 22

IV. Mercury Continues His Inquiry

into the Condition of God's
Children and Meets with More
Surprises 36

V. Mercury in Whitechapel .... 46

VI. What the Socialist Said . . . .63

VII. A Political Economist Has No Soul 86

VIII. The Wrath of God ... . 106

God's Children

CHAPTER I

IN WHICH I INTRODUCE MY -GOD

I think I wrote and spoke to you about my definition
of God, which I would now give in answer to the
question, What is God? God is that All, that infinite All
of which I am conscious of being a part, and therefore
all in me is encompassed by God, and I feel him in
everything. — Thoughts on God: Leo Tolstoi.

Having selected "God's Children" as
the title of this allegory, I find myself
urged in consequence to a very curious
quest. I am in search of a god. I must
have one to be a father to the children.
My position is awkward. Probably you
have heard of Ponce de Leon in search
of the fountain of eternal youth, or Jason
in search of the golden fleece, but I
have no doubt this is the first time you
have ever met a man in search of a god.
There are plenty to select from, it is true,
in fact the supply of divinities is much in

5

God ' s Children

excess of the demand, and the religious
market is simply glutted with gods.

There is the Jehovah of Judaism, the
Christ of Christianity, the Zeus or Jupiter
of Greece and Rome, the Vishnu and
Brahma of India, not to mention Apollo,
Mars, and Venus (the young lady will
excuse me I hope for not giving her
precedence) and the little pantsless, grace-
less god of love, Cupid. Besides these
there are the thousand and one gods and
goddesses of India, Siam, Burmah, and
China, with their grotesque and funny
faces, and their many heads and arms.

I have sampled these goods, — I beg
their pardons I mean gods, — and find
them not to my liking.

There is that sombre, harsh and erratic
deity which Christianity has inherited
from its parent creed Judaism. A
divinity who could not make manifest
unto men such simple and self-evident
rules of conduct as, Thou shalt not kill,
thou shalt not steal and thou shalt not
commit adultery, without creating an

In Which I Introduce My God 7

unpleasant atmospheric disturbance and
compelling an extremely aged Jew called
Moses to stay for three days and three
nights on the top of a very high mountain
without food or protection from the
inclemencies of the weather. A God who
foolishly came down unto this particular
planet called the Earth and allowed its
denizens who are themselves but the
creation of his will and alive by his
sufferance, to put him to death. This
God will not suit my purpose, I do not
like him and will not have him.

I next turn to the principal god of the
religions that were accepted by civiliza-
tion prior to Christianity — him who was
known to the Greeks as Zeus and to the
Latins as Jupiter, and I must say I prefer
him to the Christian God because he was
such a jolly good fellow. He was so like
to erring mortals that I like him all the
more for it. When he came on earth it
was not to die for men; Jupiter knew too
much for that, he came down to have
a good time. He enjoyed himself

God's Children

immensely with such young ladies as
Leda and Europa in a manner that would
furnish a splendid theme for a modern
farce or a realistic novel, and when he
returned to Olympus, Juno, his wife,
tendered him very much the same recep-
tion as an earthly spouse would give to
an erring husband. I turn with sorrow
from this humane and jovial divinity
because I cannot accept him on account
of the shockingly low standard of his
morals.

Shelley in his notes to Queen Mab
says: — "God is an hypothesis," and if God
be merely an imagination I do not see
why I should not be entitled to imagine
my own god if I am too fastidious about
my divinities to accept the crude concep-
tions of others. I shall therefore proceed
to imagine my own god as follows: —

God is kind, benign and beautiful;
urbane in manner, almighty in will, but
merciful in disposition. Eternal, never
born and never dying, he existed from
ages which had no beginning; alone in

In Which I Introditce My God g

terrible and majestic solitude, until he
became weary of his loneliness (I cannot
imagine a god who has not certain human
attributes — it is beyond man's mental
power to do so) and in order to relieve
himself of his fit of divine ennui he
created certain semi-divine beings as
attendants and companions, and put
them in a place called heaven. These
companions amused him for a time, but
again he became weary and he tired of
them and their company and it occurred
to his divine mind that it would be very
amusing to construct some sort of a toy
or contrivance to please himself with and
he made the universe. He brought into
existence a number of ever revolving and
moving bodies of substance, and he kept
them in form and place and proper circuit
by means of force or energy. This grand
far-reaching cosmos of matter and motion
continually counterbalancing each on the
other, this beautiful aggregation of bril-
liant suns with their many hued attend-
ant planets circling around them, these

io God's Child

ren

strange, gorgeous, and erratically moving
comets all extending into the farthest
limits of space, myriads and myriads of
miles in length and breadth and height, is
spoken of in awesome reverence by
mortals as the universe. In heaven,
though, they do not consider this universe
so seriously. Its many revolutions and
changes and phases amuse God and his
angels even as the revolving of a top or
the changing of forms and colors in a
kaleidoscope will please a child. The
universe is God's plaything.

God studied and watched this universe,
his toy, in its entirety and fullness and
vastness. It pleased him to perceive its
many forms and motions. He considered
it in its details and peered into its
smallest aspect, and laughed to see how
many millions of minute forms of animal
life one small drop of water could contain
and then he became tired of his toy and
neglected it again for a very long period.

After a very long time had elapsed he
suddenly thought of it again and in a

In Which I Introduce My God 1 1

passing whim of divine humor, for God
appreciates humor, it occurred to him
that it would be a very interesting experi-
ment if he should take an infinitesimal
fraction or atom of his mens divinior, his
divine soul and essence, and instill it into
the brains of certain beings on the differ-
ent planets and thus endow them with
reason just to find out what ridiculous
uses they would make of it.

He passed through the universe rapidly,
for it does not take God long to do so,
and he placed a very small amount of the
mens divinior in one distinct species of
animal inhabiting each planet.

In due time he reached the earth and
for a while he hesitated among the
different living beings upon its surface,
wondering upon which he should bestow
his great gift of reason. He thought at
first of the graceful gazelle, swift-footed
and slender, careering at lightning speed
over the boundless wilds of South Africa.
He thought of the powerful, majestic lion
with his tawny-crested calm-faced head

12 God's Children

upreared, and shoulders flowing with a
mane of tangled locks.

But it so happened, just as he was about
to bestow this great gift upon some noble
beast or beautiful bird, that God caught
sight of a man. God laughed pityingly
and exclaimed:

"Poor misshapen beast, how extremely
hideous you appear. Surely I must have
been very careless when I made you, for
your limbs are not of uniform length like
those of the more graceful monkey or
most of the other animals, and the hair
upon your body appears only in patches,
while in other places you are so comically
bald; you are slow and shambling of
movement, and I am sure you cannot run
away from fleeter beasts of prey, and
when caught by them you must be very
defenseless for you have not long keen
horns, neither have you teeth nor claws,
therefore, poor misshapen man, to you
will I give the gift of reason, in order
that you may be able through the intelli-
gence of your mind to fashion artificial

In Which I Introduce My God 13

clothing for that body which I have
neglected to clothe properly, and that
you may be able to make for yourself out
of stone or iron sharp and heavy weapons
to supply the place of teeth and claws,
and in order that you may build houses
and go into them when the night is dark
and thus be safe from the other more
powerful beasts. Unto you, man, do I
give that essence divine called mind and
adopt you from among all the beasts of
the earth to be God's Children."

CHAPTER II

GOD SENDS MERCURY TO INVESTIGATE THE
CONDITION OF HIS CHILDREN

A station like the herald Mercury. — Hamlet: Shake-
speare.

After God had selected men to be his
children, he passed away through the
universe visiting other planets, and even-
tually having completed his work returned
to heaven, and from thence for a short
time he amused himself studying his
children on the different planets, some-
times thinking of them on one and some-
times on another, but he forgot or
neglected the earth.

After a short time God wearied of this
diversion also and he lazily ignored the
doings of his children, except occasionally
when he would become casually desirous
about them, and then having found thefts
too uninteresting for his immediate
divine attention he would call for his
14

God Sends Mercury to Investigate 1 5

heavenly messenger and send him on to
investigate them. The name of this
heavenly messenger is unknown to me
for he is semi-divine and I am merely
mortal, but as I shall be compelled often
to refer to him I shall call him Mercury,
the name by which heaven's messenger
was known to the ancients.

God was reclining gracefully and care-
lessly upon a couch of opalescent-colored
clouds when he suddenly thought he
would like to be amused and he fixed his
eyes upon his toy, the universe. He
thought of his children who inhabited
many of its different planets. His eyes
wandered over many of them and at
length by chance rested upon the earth.
This was merely an accident.

God lifted his voice and he called aloud
for the heavenly messenger, Mercury.
He did not exclaim aloud, majestically,
"Come thou hither, oh, my fleet and obedi-
ent messenger!" Only the pompous over-
bearing divinities, imagined by foolish
mortals, talk that way. Earthly kings

1 6 God ' s Children

sometimes speak that way too, and
imagine it is dignified and majestic.
Majesty is simply the quintessence of
ridiculous self-conceit. God is unassum-
ing and plain in manner, simple and
direct in talk. He simply said, "Mercury,
come here."

And Mercury, like all the other beings
in heaven, did not approach in fear and
dread as God's attendants are usually
supposed to, he did not prostrate himself
at God's feet and humbly implore his will,
for God, not being of a despotic disposi-
tion does not wish his attendants to be
servile and cringing. Mercury simply
walked up to God and looking him
frankly in the face remarked in uncon-
cerned but still respectful manner:
"Well, God, what do you want with me?"

God replied, "Well, Mercury, I feel I
would like to amuse myself with the
doings of my children. Go down to one
of those planets" — here God's gaze
wandered over the universe and by the
merest chance rested upon the earth, — "go

God Sends Mercury to Investigate 1 7

to that far-away dim-looking planet and
tell me when you return how my children
are progressing."

Mercury hurried away very happy, for
these commissions usually meant to him
very pleasant and happy vacations.
Before going, however, he did what an
earthly tourist does when he starts out
upon a journey. The tourist usually
gathers information about the land where
he is going to visit and oftentimes carries
that information with him in the form of
a guide-book. In the same manner Mer-
cury hurried away to seek some informa-
tion about the place he was going to visit,
and in order to obtain it he sought the
office of the recording angel.

This heavenly official is supposed to
keep a classified record of the universe,
its manifestations and movements, and of
the children of God who inhabit it and
their habits, their works, inclinations,
governments, etc., — but he does not.
Like many a mortal official he has turned
his position into a sinecure, he has

1 8 God's Children

neglected the book of records,, and God,
being a kindly and indulgent master,
does not bother much about what the
recording angel does, or rather does not.

When Mercury entered the office of
this official the recording angel was in a
deep slumber. He awoke and inquired,
yawningly, and with that disturbed and
petulant air peculiar to all officials, when
expected to perform the functions of
their office, what Mercury wanted.

Mercury replied in a good humored
manner: "Well, my friend, I have been or-
dered by God to investigate the condition
of his children on the earth, and I thought
I would come to you before I started out
in order to get some information."

The recording angel quickly recovered
his equanimity — for the heavenly people
are polite to each other — and remarked:
"I fear, Mercury, that you are going to
a very unpleasant place. That Earth is
one of the most peculiar and puzzling of
all the planets; in fact it seems to me
there is something very wrong there."

God Sends Mercury to Investigate 19

This said, the recording angel began to
search among the books of record
exclaiming dreamily: "The earth, the
earth, where did I leave the volume in
which it is described. I fear it is lost.
Oh yes, here it is!"

He pulled down from his shelves a
very dusty-looking volume, and twitching
one of his wings around he cleared the
many cobwebs off the book.

"God's children on the earth," he said,
"have a strange habit of congregating
closely, and I should think unhealthily,
together in large aggregations which
they call cities, and I think if you are
sent to inquire into their institutions and
manners you had better seek the largest
of these cities. I think it is called
Nineveh or Babylon. No, that was some
time ago, they have drifted farther west-
ward now. I think," he said, turning over
another page, "it is Rome. No, that is
not it; I made another entry only recently,
I think — yes — here it is, London. You
will find this to be the largest city to-day

20 God's Children

on the earth. It is situated upon a
small island called England, and you had
better go to that city, for there you will
find concentrated all the enterprises,
hopes and ambitions of God's Children
centered in one great focus, and you will
thus be saved the trouble of much trav-
eling and long investigation."

"England, the country in which this
city is situated, is a small island on the
northeast corner of a large sheet of
water called the Atlantic Ocean and on
the northwest corner of a large conti-
nent of land."

"Very well," exclaimed Mercury, "that
is all I wish to know," and he hurried
away.

The recording angel sauntered back
into his office and resumed his slumber.

Mercury went rapidly to the golden
gates of heaven and passed without them.
For one moment he poised himself and
then spreading his wings began to pass
through space with a rapidity that
exceeds mortal ken.

God Sends Mercury to Investigate 21

Solar systems and planets rushed
past him, and in a few seconds the
earth became larger and nearer. Its con-
tinents and oceans spread before him.
He directed his course toward the point
described and arrived in the center of
London at Charing Cross.

CHAPTER III

MERCURY BEGINS TO INVESTIGATE THE CON-
DITION OF god's CHILDREN AND MEETS
WITH STRANGE EXPERIENCES

If we could conceive a visitor from another planet
coming among us and being set down in the midst of
our western civilization at the present day there is one
feature of our life, which we might imagine could not
fail to excite his interest and curiosity. . . . He
would notice at every turn in our cities great buildings —
churches, temples, cathedrals — and he would have seen
also that wherever men lived together in small groups
they erected these buildings. . . . If at this stage he
were to ask his guide for some explanation of these
phenomena he would not improbably begin to feel some-
what puzzled.

— Social Evolution, Chap. IV: Benjamin Kidd.

When Mercury arrived in Charing
Cross, which is in the center of London,
he hovered for a time above in spiritual
form invisible to mortal eyes. But it
soon occurred to him that he had better
take tangible shape, assume mortal form,
if he would discover anything about

22

Mercury Begins to Investigate 23

God's Children, and accordingly he
looked around him and observed the
different people who were passing. Just
at that moment an exquisite dandy, fresh
from a morning call, passed by and
Mercury resolved to assume his form, cut
of clothing and other very necessary
appurtenances, such as cigar, eye-glass
and gold-headed cane. He quickly threw
away the cigar, for the dandy who had
been smoking the similar one did not
have a very fastidious perception of the
gentle flavor of the weed, he being one of
those who smoke only for appearance
and not from a sense of enjoyment, and
hence his cigar had a vile flavor. The
eye-glass Mercury rapidly dropped from
his face for although he had assumed the
external appearance of a dude it was
beyond his patience and endurance to
perform the most laborious and painful
function of that genus.

He walked westward from Charing
Cross and passing through Trafalgar
Square he admired the statues, fountains

24 God's Children

and buildings and he became very well
impressed with the residences of God's
Children and the buildings in their city.
He looked at the people who were
passing and remarked to himself:

"Well, they appear to be clean and
comfortable although their faces are not
very intelligent and their clothing appears
to be of very strange shape and of very
dull colors." The tall silk hats, the
straight black garments of the men, for
there were few women abroad at that
early hour on Sunday morning in Pall
Mall, did not appear to Mercury to be
very beautiful.

Suddenly he saw something which
caused him to hold his breath in astonish-
ment. It was a lady — nay something
more important than that, a lady's maid
— aye it was even worse still, a spring hat
plus a lady's maid. Mercury felt himself
compelled to admit that if the men wore
only dark and sombre hues the women
made ample amends for it. That hat
was fearfully and wonderfully made. It

Mercury Begins to Investigate 25

was surmounted with birds, beasts,
flowers, ferns and ribbons, and the hues
of this hat and those of the rest of the
raiment of the maid combined all the
colors of the rainbow plus many others.
Mercury became so intensely interested
in the polychromatically garbed damsel
that he even violated the proprieties by
staring rudely and blankly at her, a pro-
ceeding which she did not seem to object
to, indeed, she expected such treatment
in Pall Mall. As she approached nearer,
the heavenly messenger perceived that
she was carrying something under her
arm. It was a book with gilt edges.
Mercury's curiosity overcoming him he
boldly inquired of her:

''What is that you are carrying?"
She replied, "That is the Bible."
"What is the Bible?" he again inquired.
"It is God's word," she replied.
"Dear me," exclaimed Mercury, "I did
not think he ever spoke to you. And
pray where are you going with it?"
"To church," she replied.

26 God 's Children

"What is church?"

"It is God's house."

"Why, he does not live here," ejacu-
lated Mercury.

The female, who was not at all sur-
prised at being accosted by an entire
stranger, for it was in Pall Mall, ogled
Mercury and appeared to court a flirta-
tion, but Mercury, feeling too much
astonished at what he had heard, ended
the conversation as abruptly as he had
begun it, much to the chagrin of the
lady's maid. Mercury did not feel much
inclined for a flirtation, he being too
much puzzled at what he had heard.
"This is truly strange," he thought,
"God's house and God's word; I must
follow her and find out what it is and
where it is." With this intent, he walked
at a respectful distance behind her
through Pall Mall and then followed her
into Whitehall, and as he went he noticed
several others going in the same direc-
tion, many of whom carried Bibles and
prayer-books.

Mercury Begins to Investigate 27

But his attention was suddenly diverted
by the most curious and untoward sights
and sounds. He heard the blaring of
trumpets and the beating of drums and
he saw a large body of men all wearing
the same red coats and carrying long
sharp steel implements upon their shoul-
ders. They marched along with a steady
and rhythmic movement and looked like
a stream of blood flowing down the
street, while the pale white glitter of their
bayonets appeared like a crest of foam
upon its surface. Above them waved
and floated a flag of gaudy hues upon
which was designed a lion, some leopards,
a harp, a crown and some other things.
Mercury looked in astonishment at this
strange sight and he turned to an old
gentleman of upright carriage who hap-
pened to be walking near, and who was
a retired army officer on half pay, and
inquired:

"What are those and why do they wear
the same kind of clothing? What will
they do with those murderous-looking

28 God 's Children

sharp things they are carrying, and where
are they going to ?"

To which the retired army officer
replied:

"That is a regiment of the glorious
British army, and they are going to South
Central Africa to slaughter some of those
beggarly Boers who have dared to rebel
against the glorious British empire."

"What!" exclaimed Mercury. "Slaugh-
ter their fellow men? Why should they
do so? Are not God's Children happy,
contented and peaceful? Why should
they kill each other? Why, the very
thought is brutal and barbarous!"

The old gentleman to whom he spoke,
bridled up and replied:

"Sir, you are a dangerous socialist,"
and then hurried away in high dudgeon.

Mercury gazed wonderingly after him,
and then remarked:

"There must be something wrong with
God's Children that they should kill each
other in this manner," and he thought
deeply about this problem as he followed

Mercury Begins to Investigate 29

the throng of people who were going to
God's house. At the end of Whitehall
he turned with the crowd in the direction
of Westminster Abbey and was much
surprised when he beheld its many tre-
foiled and quaintly-carved facades and
looked up at its delicate Gothic spires
reaching upward toward heaven and
losing their graceful forms in the dim
and misty sky of London.

"Is that God's house?" he inquired of a
passer-by.

"Yes it is," came back the answer.

Mercury gazed with awe and wonder
upon the beautiful structure and then
remarked:

"It is grand and beautiful. Truly it is
worthy of being called God's house."

He entered and he admired the lofty
nave, the shadowy high-groined roof, and
when he reached Henry the Seventh's
Chapel he was pleased with that perfect
specimen of later Gothic architecture and
admired much the intricate and lace-like
tracery of its wonderfully carven stone

30 God ' s Children

ceiling, but he passed from thence to that
part of the Abbey where St. Edward the
Confessor and many other English kings
are buried, and he noticed in particular a
tomb above which was suspended a
tarnished helmet, a long rusty sword and
a shield. Two youths were standing
reverently before this tomb gazing upon
it in deep veneration, and one whispered
unto the other:

"It is the tomb of Henry the Fifth, the
hero of Agincourt."

Mercury turned to the youth and asked
him:

"What noble deed did this hero per-
form that he should be honored with
burial in God's beautiful house?"

The boy replied:

"Oh, he was brave. He went to war,
and killed many Frenchmen."

"Do they bury butchers in the house of
God?" sternly inquired Mercury.

"Sir, you are a vandal," indignantly
rejoined the boy.

Mercury's astonishment at this curt

Mercury Begins to Investigate 31

answer was checked by a verger who
approached him and informed him that
the service of God was about to begin,
and that he must stop walking about
looking at the sights.

"I wonder how God's Children serve
him," murmured Mercury, as he walked
toward the nave and took his seat
among the congregation.

He perceived a portly, florid-faced
being, attired in feminine costume, con-
sisting of a long black petticoat and a
curious garment over it, which looked like
a shirt to which were attached sleeves
so voluminous that ten poor children
might have found material for clean body
linen in them, ascend the pulpit.

The large fat man thus fantastically
dressed like a woman, excited Mercury's
risibility and he began to laugh, where-
upon a pious young lady, who sat near
him, turned toward him and eyed him
scornfully. The action drew Mercury's
attention to her and he noticed that her
sleeves too were most unnecessarily large.

32 God's Children

Prompted by an ungovernable curiosity
he inquired of her:

"Why does that man dress himself like
a woman? Why does he wear long petti-
coats and tremendous sleeves the same as
yours?"

To which the pious female replied
sourly:

"Young man, if you do not behave
yourself, I will call a verger and have you
put out."

One of those officials had noticed Mer-
cury smiling and had seen him talk to the
female, and approaching the heavenly
messenger, he addressed him thus:

"Keep quiet, sir, or I will expel you."

Mercury remained quiet for a time, but
something so ridiculous occurred shortly,
that he felt himself compelled to laugh
outright.

The tall fat man in female garb began
to talk aloud with a most abominable
Oxford drawl, as follows:

"Oh, Laud, we haughtily beseech thee
that thou willst deign to assist os, and we

. Mercury Begins to Investigate 33

do ask of thee in the most haughty
mannah," etc.

"I wonder what he is talking so
haughtily to God about," said Mercury.

"How God will laugh when I tell him
about this."

"Oh, Laud," continued the minister,
"who didst come down upon this earth to
die for thy children "

"What!" exclaimed Mercury. "God
came down upon this earth to die for his
children? Why, what a fantastic idea!
Are God's Children so stupid that they
think he would commit suicide for such a
trivial cause?"

The thought was so extremely ridicu-
lous that Mercury began to laugh aloud.
The verger approached him again and
said to him:

"Now, behave yourself; this is the last
warning I will give you," and in company
with another verger he remained standing
threateningly near Mercury.

Again Mercury became very quiet, and
again he listened to the minister, but this

34 God' s Children

time he heard words which excited not
his ridicule but his wrath.

"Oh Laud," exclaimed the minister,
"bless our army in Africa. May our
glorious British regiments be victorious
over those vile Boers. May they, in
righteous anger, oh Laud, slaughter those
rebels who have dared to resist the onward
march of progress and civilization."

This was more than Mercury could
tolerate. Rising angrily, he cried in
threatening tones: "That is an abomin-
able blasphemy; God is kind and merci-
ful and you insult his name when you
invoke his assistance in perpetrating
wholesale murder. Your foolish talk
about his dying for you may be harmless,
but when you seek his aid for the doing
of bloody deeds, then" — but Mercury got
no further with his protest, for the two
vergers seized him by the collar of his
coat, and that part of his clothing, which
on account of its looseness afforded an
ample grasp, and they then threw him
out of the Abbey.

Mercury Begins to Investigate 35

Thus was God's messenger thrown out
of God's house by God's Children because
he objected to the blasphemy of God's
name.

CHAPTER IV

MERCURY CONTINUES HIS INQUIRY INTO THE

CONDITION OF GOD'S CHILDREN AND

MEETS WITH MORE SURPRISES

In any case there are two cities, hostile to one
another — the city of the poor and the city of the rich:
and each of these contains many cities ; and if you deal
with them as one you will find yourself thoroughly mis-
taken; but if you treat them as two and give to one
class in the community the power and persons of the
other you will have many allies and few enemies. —
Plato's Republic, Book IV.

A large crowd of idlers, prompted by
curiosity, gathered around Mercury when
he was expelled from God's house and
gazed anxiously upon him, eagerly
expecting him to fight with one of the
vergers, and thus enable them to enjoy
that prettiest of London street scenes, "a
row." When Mercury walked away they
were much chagrined and had to content
themselves with answering the anxious

questionings of other idlers who had

36

Mercury Continues His Inquiry 37

arrived too late, and who were eagerly
asking, "What's up?"

Mercury had not proceeded far from
the scene of the disturbance when he was
overtaken by a politely disposed, but very
aristocratic-looking old gentleman whose
features were of the clean-cut Norman
order and whose habiliments evidenced
the height of sartorial art. In a conde-
scending and patronizing manner he be-
gan to bestow upon Mercury that which
men are always willing to give gratuitously
because it costs nothing to acquire —
advice. Those who give the most advice
usually need it most.

"Sir," began the old gentleman, "I hope
you will pardon my familiarity, but my
intentions are gentlemanly and for your
welfare. My dear young sir, you evi-
dently imbibed so much champagne last
night that you are still in a slightly after-
dinner condition. Pray don't be offended;
remember, I speak for your welfare. I
perceived you this morning in Pall Mall,
and although you are a stranger to me, I

38 God's Children

became convinced by your distinguished
bearing, that you were a gentleman, and
when I afterward saw you attempting to
strike up a flirtation with a young lady in
the Abbey, laughing at the minister, and
fighting with the vergers, I became con-
vinced that my first impression con-
cerning you must be correct.

"I would kindly advise you to retire to
your chambers. I have much sympathy
with a young gentleman sowing his wild
oats, for I am reaping mine now, and my
advice is tendered to you out of a gentle-
manly regard for your good."

He continued much further in a similar
strain, and Mercury, although not quite
comprehending what he meant, tolerated
him because the heavenly beings are nat-
urally polite, and the advice, although
slightly blase and wearisome, was offered
with a good intention.

Suddenly, however, the old aristocrat's
admonitions were rudely interrupted by
the appearance of a man of extremely
unprepossessing exterior. With a pallid

Mercttry Continues His Inqtiiry 39

and hunger-marked face, attired in
squallid and tattered garb, a beggar
approached them. Extending a toil-worn
knotty hand, he beseeched alms in plead-
ing tones, telling meanwhile of hunger
and cold and suffering. Prompted by
that most heavenly instinct, mercy, Mer-
cury bestowed upon the suppliant a small
sum of money, but was much surprised to
hear the old gentleman, who had been
talking in such kind and paternal tones,
refuse in a harsh and brutal manner.

Turning to him, Mercury asked in sur-
prise:

"Why is that man so miserable and
destitute while so many are comfortable,
well-clad and well-fed, and why, my
friend, do you refuse to relieve his urgent
needs in such harsh and brutal manner?"

"Because he is a vagabond, a loafer,
who is too lazy to work, and I do
not believe in encouraging pauperism,"
replied the gentleman.

"Had I known that I would not have
encouraged him neither," remarked Mer-

40 God's Children

cury, "for in a clean comfortable land
like this there can be no excuse for such
abject want, and I consider the condition
of that man a fitting punishment for his
idleness. These palatial buildings could
not be raised without labor; your clothing
could not be made without labor; the
food which has made you so sleek and
healthy could not be provided and pre-
pared without labor, and such people
as that idle and dirty man (I hope they
are not numerous, in fact, I am sure they
are not, for this is the first I have seen)
should not be encouraged in their filthy
indolence by the nice clean members of
the community, who do work, such for
instance as yourself."

"Sir," hastily queried the aristocrat, "do
I understand you to insinuate that you
take me for a workingman? Are my
manners, sir, suggestive of the toiling,
sweating multitude?"

"What!" exclaimed Mercury, "don't you
work?"

"Of course I do not," replied the other.

Mercury Continues His Inquiry 41

"I am a gentleman — it is beneath my
dignity to do so."

"Then, if you do not work, and he does
not work," asked Mercury, pointing in the
direction of the beggar, "how comes it
that you are a gentleman and he is a
loafer? How is it that you are fat, well-
dressed and happy, and he is lean, ragged
and miserable? Why do you speak con-
temptuously of work and then blame the
man because he will not do that which
you despise?"

Furiously the old aristocrat replied:
"Sir, your clothing and manners led me to
mistake you for a gentleman, but I now
see my error. You are a leveller, a revo-
lutionist, sir, and I now believe your object
in Pall Mall was not a lawful one. By Jove,
how hard it is to distinguish between a
gentleman and a commoner these days."
Thus rapidly speaking, he hurried away,
purple in the face with anger.

Mercury looked thoughtfully in the
direction of the retreating gentleman and
remarked:

42 God 's Children

"These children of God are really a
problem. Idleness is a curse and is
despised in one set of men; it is a
blessing and is rewarded with honors and
riches in another. This is the first
problem which I do not understand. The
next one is, if none of these people work,
who builds all the palaces and mansions
and who keeps them and the roadway
in repair ? These are rather puzzling
questions, and then the astonishing
absurdity of that ridiculous proceeding
which they call the service of God and
their willful and reckless slaughter of
other people which they term war and
which they appear to glory in. These
subjects I must find out about." Lowly
he bent his head and began to ponder on
these strange questions. He retraced his
steps the same way as he had come, fol-
lowing the custom of wanderers in
strange places who usually go back the
same way as they come. Passing back up
Whitehall he reached Trafalgar Square
and then instead of going westward, as in

Mercury Continues His Inquiry 43

the morning, he turned east and entered
the Strand. Still wrapped in thought he
wandered on. Once when passing Temple
Bar, that spot rendered sacred by so many
classic memories, haunted by the shades of
Shakespeare, Jonson, Dryden, Goldmith,
Johnson and Boswell, he lifted his head
and noticed as he entered Fleet Street
that the people were garbed in plainer,
more careless, and in a few instances
rather shabby, attire, and he remarked:

"Ah! they do not appear to be as well
clothed here," but he added, critically
examining a few faces of those that
passed, "they appear to be more thought-
ful and intellectual."

Mercury was passing through Fleet
Street, and the people he remarked were
journalists, some of them hack writers
who certainly would be intelligent if they
had time to be so — but they have not.

Still he proceeded eastward when sud-
denly the noise of traffic seemed to cease.
Mercury had entered into a city of empty
buildings and depopulated streets where

44 God' s Children

everything seemed to be so dreadfully
and ominously still that the abomination
of desolation seemed to be upon the
place. He found himself surrounded by
an oppressive stillness and silence. High
majestic buildings, palatial in their
aspects and proportions, rose in grim and
sombre majesty on either side, but there
were no curtains in their windows, and
these windows were inscribed with many
names. No smoke arose from their chim-
neys and although these houses were so
large and impressive, it appeared as
though they were all deserted. It was
not only so with a few, but every street
appeared to be full of such houses, silent,
still and empty.

"What can this mean?" mused Mercury.
"Here is a deserted city. Here "are large
palaces apparently entirely empty. Are
God's Children so foolish that they build
houses and do not live in them?" And
he looked around in vain to find a mortal
from whom to inquire the cause of this
remarkable phenomenon.

Mercury Continues His Inquiry 45

A watchman, whose unpleasant and
monotonous duty it was to take care of
some building nearby, at length appeared,
and Mercury thus addressed him:

"My friend, what are all these buildings,
and why are they all so dreary, void and
uninhabited?"

To which the watchman replied:

"These are banks, insurance offices and
other large commercial establishments,
and this is called the city, that part of Lon-
don which is devoted to business and com-
merce. Nobody lives here and although
many are to be found here on workdays,
this place is deserted on Sundays."

"And why is it deserted on Sunday?"
asked Mercury.

"Because," replied the watchman, "on
this day in the week they serve God; on
the other six Mammon."

"Oh, then," remarked Mercury, "they
have two gods whom they serve?"

"Yes," replied the watchman, who like
many of his occupation was something of
a cynic, "and they do so very effectually."

CHAPTER V

MERCURY IN WHITECHAPEL

O, Dii immortales! Ubinam gentium sumus? Quam
rem publicam habemus? In qua urbe vivimus?

Cicero.

Each strove by hearty blows and knocks
To prove his theory orthodox.

— Butler's Hudibras.

Musing deeply about the strange habits
of God's Children, Mercury proceeded on
his way eastward through St. Paul's
Churchyard, Cheapside, Poultry, Cornhill
and Leadenhall Street, still surrounded
by tall stately buildings, and the chilly
silence of streets and structures made
him meditate more deeply.

With head bent down and hands
joined behind his back he walked along
mechanically, thinking earnestly and pro-
foundly over these problems. While thus
abstracted he passed from Leadenhall

Street through Aldgate into a noisy, foul-

46

Mercury in Whitechapel 47

smelling, busy thoroughfare; but he was
so preoccupied that he heard not the din
and saw not the motley throng of people.
Suddenly he was rudely awakened from
his ponderings by somebody jostling
against him. Mercury looked up and
shuddered, for a drunken woman had
staggered against him. This degraded
creature, who carried a sickly-looking
infant in her arms, was so repulsively
intoxicated that she reeled. Her face
was bloated and bestial, her clothing
soiled, tattered and awry, and she turned
toward Mercury and uttered such a
revolting flood of vulgarities and obscen-
ities that even the passers-by, accustomed
as they were to such parlance, stopped in
surprise. Mercury stood looking at her
in astonishment and disgust until a large
crowd had assembled. He gazed into her
debauched face and upon her bedraggled
clothing and then upon those who pressed
around him, and in deep astonishment he
exclaimed: "Are these God's Children?
Why, that cannot be!" And then he

48 God ' s Children

quickly jostled his way out of the crowd.
Proceeding along the street he noticed
that all whom he met were attired in the
same garb, some of them ragged and
some in tawdry, cheap clothing, which
was at best but a ridiculous imitation, a
tawdry caricature of the fine clothing
worn by those whom he had seen at the
West End.

He looked up at the buildings, and
instead of the palatial residences and
clubs or grand gloomy bank buildings
which he had seen in other parts of the
city, he was astonished to perceive
unstable, tottering, antique structures,
some of them centuries old, each story of
which leaned over the other toward the
street as though looking down to see
where it would fall, sooner or later, while
some others leaned against each other, in
a dangerously oblique manner, as if they
were as intoxicated as many of their
occupants were.

The gin palaces were filled to over-
flowing with ribald, vulgar, drunken

Mercury in Whitechapel 49

crowds, and from the open doors of these
showy dens of iniquity issued forth
snatches of coarse music, hall ditties,
blent with hoarse, hilarious laughter,
filthy jokes, brutal jeers, savage quarrel-
ings and thick, foul-smelling tobacco
smoke.

A girl, young in years, but old in vice,
whose form was still that of a child, but
whose face, with its bold eyes, painted
cheeks and thick sensual mouth pro-
claimed a soul long steeped in filth, and
whose ragged clothing was rendered
repulsive by bright cheap ribbons and
sham jewelry, approached Mercury and,
leering at him, whispered something.

The messenger from heaven, where all
are pure, turned away pale and shud-
dering.

"Can this be the earth? Are these
God's Children?" exclaimed Mercury. "It
may be that while in my recent abstrac-
tion I left the earth and passed to some
strange repulsive place that God knows
not of. Where are those beautiful, well-

50 God's Children

dressed people, those fine buildings that I
saw but recently? Here everything is so
different. I must inquire."

He looked about for some one to speak
to, but was afraid to address the vile
wretches who thronged the street. At
length he saw a man who appeared to be
cleaner and stouter than the others and
who wore a blue costume with brass
buttons on it and who carried suspended
at his side a baton. Mercury resolved to
ask him, not because he looked more
intelligent than the common people, but
because he appeared as if he were an
animated sign-post, a living street direc-
tory. This man was really of that char-
acter, for he belonged to that body of
men who incidentally and accidentally
sometimes arrest a petty and inexperi-
enced criminal, but who are occupied
principally in answering questions con-
cerning the way about town, and who,
apart from this, seldom do aught else
save lifting glasses of beer to their lips or
a club to break the head of a striker — he

Mercury in Whitechapel 51

was a policeman. Approaching him Mer-
cury inquired:

"My friend, is this the earth, and if it
is not, where am I?"

The limb of the law gazed disdainfully
upon his questioner, and scornfully ejacu-
lated:

"Get out yer bloomin' toff, d'ye want
ter make a monkey out o' me?"

To which Mercury replied:

"Well, my friend, you tell me to get
out, and I assure you I certainly would
like to do so, for I do not like my sur-
roundings, and as to making a monkey of
you, the power to do so belongs to God
alone. I certainly would make that
necessary improvement in you if it lay in
my power. However, I beg of you to tell
me where I am, for I am a stranger in a
very strange land."

The policeman looked in sullen surprise
at Mercury and laconically replied:

"You are in High Street, Whitechapel."

Mercury thanked him and continued
on his way down the unwholesome and

52 God } s Children

noisy street. He saw the barefoot beggar,
the haggard-faced workingman, the
shabbily-attired woman, the pallid little
children and he wondered, pitied and
sympathized at and with all.

Suddenly he heard again the stirring
sound of martial music which he had
before heard in Whitehall, the beating of
drum, the blaring of trumpets, accom-
panied by the measured tread of many
marching feet. He saw the red-coated
soldiers passing along with mechanical
regularity and stern symmetry. The
crowd gazed sullenly and darkly upon
the troops as they passed, and Mercury,
who happened at the time to be standing
near a cadaverous-faced workingman,
remarked to him in order to find out
something further about the barbarous
custom of war:

"So that is a part of the glorious British
army marching off to Africa to maintain
the glory of the British Empire?"

But the workman turned upon him with
a scowl and fiercely rejoined:

Mercury in Whitechapel 53

"You talk to me about the glory of the
British Empire. Glory, indeed! They
say the sun never sets upon it but that
same sun rises every morning upon my
misery, for I am unemployed and desti-
tute, and to-morrow it will rise upon
sorrow for my only son, the one hope of
my life, the solace of my age, marches to
the war with that regiment. Get from
me, you damned patriotic liar, or I will
take you by the throat." And he supple-
mented his remarks with such a threaten-
ing gesture that Mercury hurried away,
wondering why God's Children differed so
in their views. He passed down High
Street and through Whitechapel Road,
which is a continuation of it, until he
reached Mile End Waste. The latter
street, which is situated at the eastern
extremity of Whitechapel, is so extremely
wide that it provides ample space for open-
air meetings, several of which are held
there every Sunday. When Mercury
arrived thither and perceived these meet-
ings he became much interested.

54 God's Children

His attention was first attracted by a
strange aggregation of fantastically-
dressed folk, the men wearing red guern-
seys and the women huge coal-scoop
bonnets. They were kicking, dancing,
screaming and praying, several banged
tambourines most discordantly, while one
huge fellow belabored a bass drum. All
at once they all ceased their uproar and
one stepped into the center of the circle
which they formed, and by means of his
very powerful jaws began to make a
louder and harsher noise than all the
others put together plus drum and tam-
bourines had made before. This shock-
ingly stentorious dissonance was presumed
to be a sermon and it ran as follows:

"The cause of all the misery which
exists is the sin of man. It is the punish-
ment of the Almighty upon his children
and cannot be avoided. Submit in
patience and fortitude to your toils and
wants and shames here below, and God
will give you rest and wealth and glory in
heaven. Envy not the rich, condemn not

Mercury in Whitechapel 55

the powerful even though they oppress
you. Leave them to the justice of God
if they are wrong. Simply set your eyes
and minds upon the heavenly hereafter;
no matter what befalls you here, an
eternal salvation will be yours. To cavil,
to question and to struggle is in vain for
God wills that these things should be and
weak men cannot alter and should not
question the inscrutable manifestations of
God's divine will and providence.

Mercury turned from him with a look
of disgust and remarked:

"It is well for you that God does not
hear you, for if he heard you blame him
for this widespread misery which appears
to be the result of ignorance among men,
and telling these poor people to tolerate
their suffering in expectation of a reward
which will never be realized, he would
make short work of you."

One of the strangely dressed girls who
belonged to the curious assemblage and
who wore a huge bonnet upon which was
inscribed the name "Salvation Army,"

56 God ' s Children

observing the serious aspect of Mercury,
approached him and asked:

"Young man, do you belong to God?"
Mercury, surprised, replied:
"Yes, I do. But why do you ask?"
"Because," replied the girl, "we are
fighting the battle of God."

"Fighting for God!" ejaculated Mer-
cury, in astonishment. "Allow me to tell
you in behalf of a powerful God who
does not need your services, that you had
better fight for man."

Mercury then proceeded on his way.
He had not gone far when he per-
ceived another meeting. This assem-
blage appeared to be more quiet and
orderly than the other, and many plainly
garbed people of both sexes were listen-
ing to a discourse on temperance deliv-
ered by a gentleman whose pale, sickly
countenance was rudely contrasted with
a very rubicund nasal organ. In fact it
appeared as if the whole of the orator's
complexion was concentrated in his nose.
Mercury overheard one old lady in the

Mercury in Whitcchapel 57

audience telling another that the color of
the dear gentleman's nose was due to indi-
gestion and when the dear gentleman
extracted a flask from his pocket the old
lady remarked that it contained medicine
for indigestion, but Mercury, who had by
this time approached very close to the
speaker, noticed an extremely pungent
odor exhaling from the flask. The tee-
totaler spoke as follows:

"This question is not one that can be
called entirely a matter concerning God;
it is not merely a religious, it is a social
and political question, for it also concerns
men and governments as well. If men
and governments would only exert them-
selves in the proper way they could erad-
icate much of the want and vice which
prevails in society. Drunkenness is the
cause of poverty and all vices and crime
originate from the same cause. Temper-
ance and thrift are all that is necessary
to make men happy, contented and pros-
perous." The speaker then drew such a
vivid word picture of the degradation

58 God 's Children

and suffering which are the results of
drink and proved by statistics how much
wealth was squandered in intoxication,
that Mercury became of the opinion that
the orator was right.

"This man," he thought, "at least is
right in that he is not expecting heaven
to do anything for humanity, but is trying
to urge God's Children to do something
for themselves."

He then walked away and peered into
several of the rum-shops, and when he
saw the vile, degraded throngs within, he
exclaimed:

"Yes, that speaker was right, here is
the cause." Mercury walked a little
farther until he came to another meeting
which was peculiar in this respect — there
was no speaker. A vacant platform
stood in the center and around it
gathered in many groups were earnest
looking men discussing the evils of
society and the remedy thereof, and Mer-
cury was much puzzled at their intense
aggressiveness and peculiar terminology.

Mercury in Whitechapel 59

He heard such expressions as "land value,"
"intrinsic value," "labor value," and
"exchange value"; "ground rent," "eco-
nomic rent," and "no rent"; "proletariat,"
"production," "distribution," "commodi-
ties," and "supply and demand" ; "exploit,"
"capitalist system," etc., and he began to
wonder who these strange earnest work-
ingmen were who appeared to have a
phraseology entirely sui generis. He
turned to a workingman who stood wait-
ing near him and asked:

"By whom is this meeting called?"
"Can't you see by the mere fact that
the speaker has not arrived yet that it is
a socialist meeting?" replied the other,
j Mercury approached one of the groups
of debaters and heard a man/who did not
believe in government and who was
trying to explain a very incomprehensible
condition of society under which all
would cooperate together for the pro-
duction and distribution of wealth with-
out any government or regulation by
superintendents of the common efforts of

60 God's Children

the community. This man loudly pro-
tested a passionate attachment to and
love for humanity while at the same time
he expressed a bitter hatred for all forms
of government.

Thereupon another in the group began
to disagree with the hater of govern-
ments. This second man began by saying
that he agreed with the former in his
detestations of government, but thought
the best way to bring about an ideal con-
dition of absolute liberty would be by
imposing a single tax on land values.
This gentleman went on to explain that
the value of land at the present was
largely due to monopoly and that the
single tax would, by abolishing monopoly,
make land much cheaper and thus give
freedom to all.

The first speaker here interjected that
he could not see how one could object to
governmental control and at the same
time be anxious to make the government
the sole landlord.

He further inquired, If the value of

Mercury in Whitechapel 61

land arises from monopoly and the single
tax would abolish monopoly, what would
the single taxers have left to tax?

Thereupon his opponent said unpleas-
ant things in a forcible strain which were
promptly replied to in a similar strain
by the first speaker. Eventually both
speakers rushed at each other and
embraced, and Mercury having heard
them express such love for humanity,
thought it a friendly embrace, but was
rudely astonished to see each uncurl his
right arm from the other's neck and
punch most vigorously. Both yelling,
biting, kicking and punching most vigor-
ously, reeled to and fro with their arms
around each other with a movement that
resembled clumsy waltzing, until having
reached the curbstone both tumbled into
the gutter.

"Why do they act in that brutal
manner? Why do they profess to love
humanity so much, yet love each other so
little? Who are they and what are they?"
asked Mercury.

62 God' s Children

"Oh, they are only an anarchist and a
single-taxer settling an argument in their
usual manner," replied a bystander.
Mercury was about to go away when a
sudden movement in the crowd attracted
his attention. The speaker had at length
arrived.

CHAPTER VI

WHAT THE SOCIALIST SAID

This need not be ; ye might arise and will
That gold should lose its power, and thrones their glory ;
That love, which none may bind, be free to fill
The world like light, and evil faith grown hoary
With crime be quenched and die. Yon promontory
Even now eclipses the descending moon: —
Dungeons and palaces are transitory —
High temples fade like vapor — Man alone
Remains whose will has power when all beside are gone.
— Revolt of Islam, Canto VII:
Percy Bysshe Shelley.

The chairman called the meeting to
order in the name of the Social Demo-
cratic Federation, and after a few hesi-
tating remarks introduced the speaker of
the day. The speaker was pale-faced
and carelessly dressed and there was
something earnest, yet cynical, about his
keen intellectual features almost Vol-
tairian in their sharpness which impressed
Mercury who listened carefully to the
following address:

63

64 God's Children

"Mr. Chairman and Friends: — There
are people who tell us that all the want
and misery which we see around us is
sent by heaven, inflicted by God upon
his children in order to test their forti-
tude and prepare them by trials and
sufferings here below for a brighter life
in the hereafter. These people blaspheme
the name of the God in whom they pro-
fess to believe when they make him
particeps criminis in the brutality and
ignorance of man. And then after having
given their God such an extremely bad
reputation they ask us to tolerate our
wrongs here below and trust in him.

"It is often said that God helps those
who help themselves, and I may add
that he trusts those who trust in them-
selves. They who would be free them-
selves must strike the blow. Men have
often fought for God, but God has never
fought for man and never will.

"There is another set of reformers who
tell us that drunkenness and improvi-
dence are the causes of want and misery,

What the Socialist Said 65

and that if we would become temperate
and thrifty the condition of the working
class would be much improved. These
people mistake a cause for an effect.
Drunkenness is not the cause of poverty;
it is simply one of the effects thereof.
Poverty is the cause of drunkenness and
for all other evils and crimes. Given
better conditions and you wTill have a
better creature, but as long as the condi-
tions that surround the worker are the
grime and dirt of the factory during the
day and the squalor and meanness of a
proletarian's few rooms at night, so long
will you have men compelled by disgust
with their surroundings to seek oblivion
in intoxication and comfort and convivi-
ality in the gilded gin palace — the poor
man's parlor.

"As far as thrift is concerned, I think it
a mockery to tell those who have nothing
in the present that they should save
something for the future, or to tell those
who are receiving a bare subsistance
wage that they should, by laying aside a

66 God's Children

few pennies per week, save enough in ten
or twenty years to purchase a country
seat similar to that of the Duke of West-
minster or of Waldorf Astor. The people
who preach thrift to unemployed or
underpaid workers," are ignorant of ele-
mentary arithmetic.

"Neither the deity nor drunkenness,
neither the providence of heaven nor the
improvident man are the causes of the
evils which afflict human society. There
is one sole and only cause and that is the
private ownership or monopoly by a few,
of those essentials which are necessary
for the welfare of the many, viz.: land
and capital. There is but one cure and
that is the public ownership and manipu-
lation of capital and land. Monopoly is
the evil; socialism is the cure. Private
ownership is the one great wrong; public
ownership and control is the one great
remedy.

"Land, the first of these essentials, is at
present monopolized by the few and
debarred to the many, unless they, the

What the Socialist Said 67

many, pay tribute in the form of rent.
Land is undoubtedly nature's free gift to
humanity collectively, not a present
made to a few landlords, and hence we
socialists claim that land, the passive
factor, should be nationalized, i.e., should
belong to the many, not to the few.
There are many reasons in favor of this
proposition and the first is that without
land we cannot live or even exist, for
everything we eat, wear and use comes
originally from the land. The national
ownership of the land, then, is the first
of our demands.

"Next we believe that labor being the
active force or potency which when exer-
cised upon land creates all wealth, should
be employed by national governments
alone. Labor is the skill of the mind, the
strength in the muscles and bodies of
strong, rough laborers and the mixture of
strength and skill in the mechanic. This
labor cannot be utilized unless it is
applied to land or raw material and these
being monopolized, the laborer is com-

68 God 's Children

pelled to go to the monopolists and work
for them at their terms and when they
want him to. When these monopolists of
the passive factor, land, do not allow the
workmen to exercise the active factor,
labor, upon the land and its products,
then the laborer does not receive wages
and he starves. Hence in order to
prevent the prospects of starvation
among those willing to perform such a
function as labor, we socialists believe
that all able to work should be employed
by a government which should be elected
by the suffrages of all, and that the
workers should not be dependent upon
the whim or avarice of a few as they are
at present.

"But even should the workers be given
access to the land and the raw material,
they even then would need something
more in this age of invention and mechan-
ical ingenuity. The worker needs not only
the things to work on, but the things to
work with, not merely land and raw
materials but tools. Furthermore, the

What the Socialist Said 69

tools he would need would not merely be
the crude implements used by his ances-
tors, but the complicated tools, the vast
and expensive machinery, of modern
times. These tools, these machines, fac-
tories and railroads are capital, the
auxiliary factor so necessary to assist
labor in conjunction with land and raw
material to create the wealth of the com-
munity. These factories, railroads and
these machines are at present monopo-
lized by capitalists, as they are called.

"We have reached the point where we
perceive that there are three factors
which are necessary for the production
and distribution of all wealth, and these
three factors are land, labor and capital.
Land is called by socialists the passive
factor, because it must be worked upon
before wealth can be produced; labor,
the active factor, because it acts upon or
fructifies the earth, and capital is defined
as the auxiliary factor because it helps
labor to produce wealth from the earth
and its products.

jo God's Children

"Now, my good friends, we socialists
simply claim that capital should be taken
by the people from the capitalists and
should be owned and used by the govern-
ment in the interest of all the people.
When we make a demand so daring and
revolutionary in its nature, we are com-
pelled of course to prove its equity. I pro-
pose, as a socialist, to deal with this ques-
tion of capital both from an economical
and ethical point of view and to prove from
both these standpoints that capital should
not belong to the capitalists as it does at
present, but that it should be owned by
the government in behalf of all. Let us
consider it in its economic aspect first
and inquire: 'What is capital?'

"David Ricardo tells us that 'Capital is
that part of wealth which is used to pro-
duce more wealth.' The same author
defines wealth as 'All articles of use or
luxury which are produced by useful hu-
man labor.' Now, if wealth consists of
articles produced by useful human labor,
and if capital is but a part of wealth, does

What the Socialist Said 71

it not logically follow that the laborers who
produced the whole must have produced
the part capital. How, then, is it that
you, the laboring class who perform this
useful labor, own and control no capital?
Let us, however, go into this matter in a
more elaborate manner. Let us take up
the questions of wealth, capital and labor
and, by inquiring into the nature and ex-
plaining the functions of each prove that
the capitalist has no right to the capital
which he owns.

''First, labor has already been defined
as strength and skill usefully applied.
Karl Marx, in Capital, Part III, Chapter
VII, thus describes labor: 'Labor is, in
the first place, a process in which both
man and nature participate, and in which
man of his own accord, starts, regu-
lates and controls the material reactions
between himself and nature. He opposes
himself to nature as one of her own
forces setting in motion arms and legs,
head and hands, the natural forces of his
body in order to appropriate nature's

72 God 's Children

productions in a form adapted to his own
wants." It is only by the exercise of
labor that wealth can be created. In his
Wealth of Nations, Chapter V, Adam
Smith says: 'Useful human labor applied
to land and raw material creates all
wealth and makes all value.'

"Now, there is a period in the life of a
thing, a form of its matter, when it is not
wealth or an object of use or luxury, and
that is before labor has been applied to it
to cause its value.

"Let us take an object of wealth, a
commodity which has some value and by
inquiring into the genesis of its value
make plain the proposition that labor
creates all wealth. Let us take this plat-
form upon which I am standing. It is
now an article of use; it has value, there-
fore it is so much wealth. Now, let us
trace it from its useless beginning to its
useful finish. There was a time when the
wood which forms this platform was the
trunk of a tree, and that tree, probably
grew in the dark recesses of some dense

What the Socialist Said 73

forest. While the wood formed part of
that tree it was not wealth because it had
no value. It had no exchange value
because nobody would or could exchange
a useful thing like a coat for a useless,
unknown thing like a tree which nobody-
had ever seen or knew of. While this
wood formed part of the tree, it could not
be used for a platform and hence it had
no use value, and before work had been
extended upon it, it could have no labor
value.

"A lumberman entered the forest one
day, and by the use of an axe, guided by
his strength, he lowered the tree. The
moment he did so the tree began to have
value; it became worth something simply
because labor had been applied to and
exercised upon it. Other laborers lopped
off the branches and again its value was
increased further, for the tree became of
greater value as a branchless trunk than
it was in its previous form, and this
increase of value was simply due to the
fact that more labor had been expended

74 God's Children

upon it. So far we see that labor applied
to a product of the land has created
wealth. Now let us continue.

"Another kind of labor was then used
upon the tree and this kind of labor was
not productive labor, or labor which
alters the form of natural raw material,
making it to be artificial raw material,
but it was distributive labor, or labor
which increases the worth of an object by
distributing, carrying or conveying it
from a place at which it is of no value, or
of small value, to another place at which
it is desired and where it becomes of
value, or of greater value. The trunk
was conveyed by the labor of railroaders
on a flat car; the brakesmen put on and
off the brakes; the conductors superin-
tended the condition and direction of the
cars and the engineer, assisted by his
fireman, directed and controlled the loco-
motive, and as a result of their distribu-
tive labor the tree was eventually brought
to some saw-mills where other productive
labor, that of the sawyers, increased its

What the Socialist Said 75

value by putting more labor into it, by
sawing it up into planks. Again the labor
of turners, varnishers, polishers and car-
penters was applied to the planks and
eventually you had this article of use,
this object of wealth — a platform. It is
simply so much natural raw material
upon which the strength, skill and inge-
nuity of lumbermen, teamsters, rail-
roaders, sawyers, joiners, carpenters,
turners and polishers has been exerted,
and as a result you have an article of use.
Now, apply the same reasoning to any
object of use or luxury you see around
you or that you use or wear — to your
clothes, to your tobacco, to your shoes or
to those houses yonder — in fact, to every
artificial thing you can see. All, all, is
the product of useful human labor.

"Yes, so far so good, you may be think-
ing; but something else entered into the
formation of this wealth: What about
your third factor, capital? Could the
sawyer work without the saw-mill, the
railroader distribute without the railroad,

76 God's Children

and are not saw-mills and railroads cap-
ital, and therefore is not the capitalist
who owns this capital entitled to some
return for allowing the laborer the use of
it in order to create value and produce
wealth? Stop there, my friend. The
mere ownership in the first place does
not mean right to possession, for the
thief owns the watch he has stolen, but
nobody will claim that he has a right to
it. The only ethical rights to ownership
are production and use. Now, did the
capitalist produce or make the capital
which he owns or does he use it? Right
here let me make two other definitions.

"Henry Fawcett, in his Manual of Polit-
ical Economy, Book I, Chapter II, stated
that: 'Capital represents all that has
been set aside from the results of past
labor to assist present or future produc-
tion.'

"David Ricardo, in his Principles of
Political Economy, Chapter V, defines
capital thus: 'Capital is that part of the
wealth of a country which is employed in

What the Socialist Said Jj

production, and consists of food, clothing,
tools, raw materials, machinery, etc.,
necessary to give effect to labor.' Now,
we have just seen how wealth, i.e., all
articles of use or luxury, is made. Any
article of use or luxury which is being
consumed is wealth, according to political
economists, but if it is not being used or
consumed, but is applied to making more,
then it is classed as capital. The clothing
you are wearing out, that is, consuming,
is wealth, but if instead of consuming but
one suit, you had some thousands of suits
for sale in a store, then those suits would
be your capital, because you would be
using them to make more wealth in the
form of profits upon them. If capital
then is simply a portion of wealth used to
create more wealth, does it not logically
follow that the portion, capital, must have
been produced by those who made the
whole, wealth, by the labor of the
workers and that it cannot have been
produced by the capitalists who never
produce anything but an infernal disturb-

yS God's Children

ance on the stock exchange? But capital,
as capital alone, cannot produce anything.
Labor must be applied in conjunction
with it, or in plain words labor must use
capital in order to create more wealth.
Therefore, as labor makes and uses cap-
ital, to the makers and the users should
belong the more wealth which is the
result, and not to a non-making, non-
using class who do nothing but control.
Permit me, however, to elaborate this
argument in order to make it plain, and
point out to you not merely what capital
is, but also what it is not. Money is not
capital; it is a mere means of exchange,
a measure of value. Stocks and shares
in large commercial concerns are not
capital, although often taken for it.
Money, stocks and shares are the mere
means of controlling capital, not capital
itself; they are to capital what title deeds
and leases are to land, and as you cannot
build a house upon a piece of paper upon
which a lease is drawn up, nor cultivate
potatoes upon a freehold document made

What the Socialist Said 79

of parchment, neither can you, by
merely signing and exchanging pieces of
paper produce wealth, nor construct
railroads, but you may wreck them some-
times though. These papers and docu-
ments are mere means of controlling
capital but are not capital itself any more
than the string which is used to hold the
dog is the dog.

"Let us consider some very plain and
obvious manifestation of capital — say a
railroad. Now, a railroad consists of
many articles of use and a few of luxury,
in the form of ties, rails, bridges, culverts,
embankments, locomotives, cars, seats,
cushions, etc., used to create more wealth
in the form of fares charged to passen-
gers, for freight dues charged for carrying
goods. Let us take this form of capital —
a railroad — and go into its economic
analysis. How are the ties, rails and
locomotives made? By the strength and
skill of the worker, i.e., by useful design-
ing labor applied to so much raw material
in the same way as this platform was

80 God's Children

made from the tree. How were the
bridges constructed, the embankment
raised, the tunnels bored? By useful and
intellectual labor exercised upon the land,
and the result of all is the capital — the
railroad.

"Yet, strange to say, although the
workers made it, the non-workers own it.
How is this possible? Is a capitalist a
huge octopus-like monster with his head
thrust into the middle of the stock
exchange shouting there, and with thou-
sands of other heads and arms at the ends
of long tentacles working, superintending
and designing in thousands of different
mines, factories, workshops, railroad sta-
tions, offices and studies? If such a
mighty monster took the products of
the strength and skill of the many, I
should certainly consider him entitled to
them.

"But the laborers not only make cap-
ital, they use it or work with it and by it
to make more wealth, not for themselves,
who have made and produced the capital,

What the Socialist Said Si

but for idlers who have not made and
who do not use but simply own and
control both capital and laborers.

"Even after the railroad, the cars, the
locomotives, etc., are made, they do not
bring in fares unless certain men — brakes-
men, porters, conductors, engineers and
laborers — work on and in them in order to
produce wealth in the form of fares and
freight dues, and even these could not
work long were it not for the labor of track
layers, section hands and laborers who
continually keep cars and road in good
repair. Now, did you ever see a capital-
ist working in the manner above men-
tioned? To return to the simile of the
octopus. Is a capitalist a monster with
one pair of eyes gazing upon an indecent
dance at the Moulin Rouge in Paris and
with myriads of other eyes watching his
far-reaching railroad in all its length of
miles and its hundreds of stations? Has
he one pair of hands used by him to lift
champagne glasses and dainty viands at
some luxurious banquet and myriads of

82 God' s Children

other tentacle-like hands busy in thou-
sands of other places collecting fares, put-
ting on brakes, firing up engines or guiding
by the lever the rate of their speed? If
such an abnormal monster had been
placed by nature above me and it took
millions of dollars worth of value to my
one, I should certainly be compelled to
admit its right to them. But it not being
so, it becomes manifestly unjust that one
non-producer should take from the toil
and ingenuity of many useful workers the
result of their labor.

"The points which I have been trying
to make plain are these: That land is
nature's free gift to humanity collectively,
that the community is injured when a few
monopolize land; therefore, for the good
of the community at large, land should
become the collective property of the
people and should be nationalized.

"That capital is made by labor, that
capital is afterward worked by labor,
therefore, capital should be owned by the
laborers who make and use it.

What the Socialist Said 83

"That labor, being the fructifying force
which is essential for the creation of
wealth, should be employed by a national
government and should not remain, as at
present, dependent upon non-workers and
monopolists for its employment.

"That all wealth is produced by useful
human labor applied to land or the
products of the land, and that the pro-
ducers should enjoy the full benefit of
their products, and hence that all able-
bodied adults should labor and should
receive the full product of their labor.

"Upon this method of reasoning the
socialists base their demands, which are
as follows: The nationalization of land
and capital and the government employ-
ment of all labor, said government to
regulate, control and superintend labor,
and manipulate the use of capital, and
decide the distribution of all wealth.
These demands may sound startling, rev-
olutionary and desperate to those who
hear them for the first time, but society
is desperately diseased and desperate

84 God 's Children

diseases need desperate remedies. Con-
sider the affluence and wealth of the
plutocratic few; consider the penury and
want of the industrious many; listen to the
groans of the workless, homeless toilers,
the sighs of down-trodden and defiled
women; heed, oh, heed, ye fathers, the
tears of the helpless little children and
arise in the majesty of your numbers and
assert your right to live as men should
live. Rebel against the gradual death of
capitalistic slavery. You have but to will
it and you may be free, for you, the
workers, are in the majority and the will
of the majority is greater than all
laws and institutions and is in fact the
only valid government. Strive with
strength, intelligence and energy to
abolish these mighty evils which press
you down. Strive by peaceable and con-
stitutional means, by speaking, organ-
izing, agitating and voting, but if these
means are rendered of no avail by the
wiles of capitalist possessors, then let
them take the terrible alternative. Go

What the Socialist Said 85

to them with words of peace, persuasion
and reasoning, but if these methods be of
no avail forget not that sacred spirit of
revolt which has so often in the past
crushed despotism and dethroned oppres-
sion.

"Turn your faces toward the capitalists
and address to them the words of the
poet, William Morris:

" 'Wish ye peace? Then be ye with us; let our
hope be your desire.
Will ye war? Then shall ye perish like the
dry wood in the fire.' "

CHAPTER VII

A POLITICAL ECONOMIST HAS NO SOUL

Hell is a city much like London —
A populous and a smoky city.
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done ;
Small justice shown, and still less pity.

There is great talk of Revolution —
And a great chance of despotism ;
Marching soldiers — camps— confusion
Politics — meetings — rage — delusion
Gin — suicide — and Methodism.

And this is Hell — and in this smother
Are all damnable and damned ;
Each one damning, damns the other ;
They are damned by one another,
By none other are they damned.

—Peter Bell the Third: P. B. Shelley.

You have a sly equivocating vein that suits me not.
— The Cenci: P. B. Shelley.

. . The soul that he got from God he has bartered
clean away ;
We have threshed a stock of print and book, and win-
nowed a chattering wind ;
And many a soul wherefrom he stole, but his we cannot
find.

86

A Political Economist Has No Soul 8j

We have handled him and dandled him, we have seared

him to the bone ;
And sure if tooth and nail show truth he has no soul of

his own.

— To7nlinson: Rudyard Kipling.

Upon the conclusion of his discourse
the socialist descended the platform and
Mercury approached him and remarked:
"Young man, you have given me much
valuable information. You have explained
to me what was before incomprehensible;
you have boldly uttered simple truths
where others have told me willful or
ignorant lies. I came from heaven to
this earth which God has plentifully
endowed with an ample sufficiency for
the welfare of all his children, and yet I
saw selfish luxury cheek by jowl with
abject want. I saw palaces large enough
to house twenty families occupied by but
one at the West End; I saw structures,
grand, massive and roomy in the city, yet
they were completely empty, and here in
these foul purlieus I see hovels barely
large enough to accommodate two fami-
lies overcrowded by twenty and thirty.

88 God's Children

Where there should be nothing but songs
and sounds of peace and happiness I hear
the blare of the trumpets of war and the
sound of the marching tread of thousands
of warriors about to slaughter at the
bidding of their government thousands of
their fellow men; I hear the sad plaints of
little hungry children, the sighs of fallen
and debauched women and the groans of
despairing fathers and mothers, hopeless,
soulless toilers. Some have blasphemed
God's name saying that he wills things
so; others have given other and trivial
causes, but you alone by a few simple
truths have made plain to me that the
one great cause of all this is avarice,
greed and monopoly, and that the one
great cure is intelligence, equality and
cooperation. Your socialism, I believe
in as the only hope of God's Children; and
I, as a messenger from heaven, give in the
name of God his sanction to it and
tender heaven's thanks to such as you
who fearlessly dare to advocate such
noble truths."

A Political Economist Has No Soul 89

The socialist speaker looked with an
air of surprised amusement upon the
aristocratic dandy who called himself a
messenger from heaven and came to the
conclusion that the heaven of his inter-
locutor was Belgravia, his god, pleasure
and that he had been worshiping that
divinity in the form of a champagne
bottle so earnestly that morning that he
had drifted accidentally into Whitechapel,
the terra incognita of his class, and was
now speaking under some kindly emotion
inspired by wine which had obliterated
his class prejudices. With that polite
urbanity which he had acquired from
dealing with men and audiences the
socialist replied:

"You say you come from heaven,
my friend, but I am afraid you will find
your way back thither difficult. It is a
long way from Whitechapel to heaven.
You say that you agree with what we
teach, but you say so in such an emotional
manner that I fear your feelings speak
and not your reason. We socialists place

go God 's Children

little confidence in such sudden conver-
sions; the Salvation Army further down
the street do that sort of thing. We do
not wish to convert you; we would rather
convince you. We do not appeal to sen-
timent, but to sense. Weigh well what I
have said, then hear what those who
oppose as say, draw your own conclusion,
and if convinced of the truth, become a
socialist and work with us for the better-
ment of the condition of mankind. Con-
versions are the result of some passing
emotion and are not lasting, but when a
man's reason convinces him he must act
up to the truth or live a lie."

"Who are your opponents?" asked
Mercury.

"They are," replied the socialist, "the
professors and teachers of political econ-
omy."

"What is political economy?" asked
Mercury.

"It is called the dismal science," replied
the socialist. "It deals with commerce,
shops, factories, trade, rent, interest and

A Political Economist Has No Soul 91

profit, and it teaches that the object God
had in view when he put people on this
earth was that they should produce
wealth for a few idlers."

"How singular," exclaimed Mercury.
"Where could I find one of its expo-
nents?"

"Go and interview Ananias Average,
Professor of Economics in Assford Uni-
versity, who resides at 449 Westbourne
Crescent, Regent's Park," replied the
socialist.

With an affectionate embrace and
much gratitude Mercury took leave of
the socialist. "It may be," mused the
heavenly messenger, "that this socialist is
wrong, nevertheless he is so anxious that
I should study the matter for myself that
I think he is not. The religious speaker
blamed God for the misery of his chil-
dren; he of course I knew to be wrong.
The orator who condemned strong drink
almost convinced me, but I found him to
be mistaken when I heard the socialist
speaker, and may not the socialist prove

Q2 God 's Children

to be incorrect when I hear from those
who differ from him? I will see the
political economist to-morrow/'

Black night had spread itself over
Whitechapel and the faint gleam of the
street lamps and more gorgeous efful-
gence of the brilliantly-lighted gin
palaces served but to render the vices
and shames of the metropolitan Inferno
more repulsive and terrible. The little
pallid-featured child, whose father she
would tell you in her own little slangy
patois was "on the booze," sat shivering
upon the doorstep of a squalid home; the
haggard-visaged mendicant beseeched in
piteous tones from indifferent passers for
that which society denied to him; the
modern Magdalenes wearing their forced
artificial smiles upon painted lips, but
showing in the depths of their sunken
eyes the unutterable woes of degraded
womanhood, jostled, beseeched and
enticed, and the thieves and pickpockets
swaggered along, some seeking with
keen-eyed alertness for prey, others

A Political Economist Has No Soul 93

revelling in flashy new clothes and tipsy
hilarity over some successful coup. The
heavenly messenger shrank from some,
shuddered at others, but in the large-
souled kindliness of his celestial compas-
sion, wept in commiseration for all.
Black midnight fell over all this wretch-
edness. Chaste mother Nature veiled
her pure eyes, the stars, with clouds, as
though she would not contemplate such
scenes.

Mercury stopped before a large build-
ing which was capped with a towering
conically-shaped spire the point of which
was concealed in the mist overhead. The
high Gothic door was open and Mercury
entered and stood in a richly-decorated
building filled with seats, at the farther
end of which was what looked like a table
covered with a linen cloth upon which
were candles, flowers and some massive
golden ornaments. An oppressive and
chilly solitude and stillness filled the vast
place. Mercury started, for somebody
touched him upon the shoulder, and asked

94 God' s Children

him what he was doing there. The
heavenly messenger started and looked
with that expression of disdain which
even the most considerate cannot conceal
when confronted with the coarse and
vulgar.

The features of the other were fat,
coarse and pig-like, his brow ape-like and
angular, his neck, broad and fat as that of
a Yorkshire bull, was tightly encircled by
a thin band of white starched linen and
his capacious paunch was covered by a
long tightly-buttoned frock-coat.

Mercury replied, "I came in here out of
curiosity because this house is so large
and stately when compared with its sur-
rounding hovels. What is this place?"

"It is the house of God," replied the
other.

"It is truly singular that God should
have an empty house while many of his
children are homeless," rejoined Mercury.

The fat minister, ignoring this last
remark, went on to ask: "As you appear
by clothing and manners to be a gentle-

A Political Economist Has No Soul 95

man, I presume you are a stranger in this
locality and came hither, I suppose,
slumming, that is, studying the condition
of the poor."

"Yes, I did," replied Mercury, with
meaning emphasis.

"Would you like to see our church? It
is one of the most beautiful and costly in
the city, even if it is in Whitechapel, and
we have a very grand oil painting here
which people often come miles to see."
He then proceeded to draw attention to
the many attractions of his church, point-
ing them out where the vague half light
allowed them to be seen.

At length they stopped before a vivid
and life-like oil painting representing
Christ sitting in the garden on Mt. Olivet
and weeping over the city of Jerusalem.
It was a wonderful picture. The artist
had conveyed into the face of the Christ-
God an ineffable look of divine sadness.

"Who was that beautiful sad-faced
man?" asked Mercury.

"That is God," replied the minister.

g6 God's Children

"Why does he weep?"

"On account of the vices of his chil-
dren," rejoined the parson.

"He looks poor," remarked Mercury.
"He is bare-footed and bare-headed; He
need not have gone so. A god should
be great and strong."

"Yes, he was strong in his humility,
great in his suffering and poverty,"
replied the minister, "for," he added,
unctiously turning up his eyes and joining
his hands together over his fat paunch,
"he knew not where to lay his head."

Just then a sound of somebody moving
and heaving a deep sigh attracted the
attention of the parson to a bench in a
dark corner of the church. Quickly he
rushed in the direction of the sounds and
perceived a wretched outcast sleeping on
the bench.

"What are you doing there, you
dirty vagabond?" angrily demanded the
parson.

"I found the door open and came in
to rest," timidly replied the pallid-faced

A Political Economist Has No Soul 97

outcast, "for I am homeless and have no
place to lay my head."

As he uttered these words a look of
suffering, so strangely similar to that on
the face of the picture overspread his
countenance that Mercury was struck by
the coincidence of the words and the look.

The parson, too brutal to notice either,
loudly exclaimed: "Get out you filthy
blackguard," and, seizing the unfortunate
by the collar, began to push him rudely
toward the door.

Mercury looked on in profound disgust.

"What lying hypocrisy," he cried, "to
build palaces for a God who knew not
where to lay his head and who never
now sleeps in them, and to hurl out like a
mangy dog one of God's Children who
stands in need of that which their God
sought in vain when he was on earth."

With a bound he reached the fat
parson just as the latter was about to
push the outcast down the steps; Mer-
cury fixed his strong white fingers in the
flabby throat of the hypocrite and dashed

g8 God's Children

him through the doorway to the pave-
ment.

The parson immediately began to
wield the weapon of priests and women —
his tongue:

"Police! Police! Murder!" he cried,
and when a policeman appeared, Mer-
cury not being in sight, the minister
vented his wrath by having the homeless
outcast arrested.

Down the street they went, the fat,
excited parson, a crowd of night owls
attracted by his cries, and a tall strong
policeman at the head, dragging along a
ragged, pallid-faced, sad-eyed workman
whose head was bowed in shame and fear
upon his breast.

In the silent solitude of the rich church,
where none could see, the beautiful
Christ-God shed real tears. He was
weeping for the vices of modern Jeru-
salem.

Next morning, Mercury, anxious to
discover the truth and to find out whether
there could be any reason why so much

A Political Economist Has No Soul 99

suffering should prevail among men,
went to see the political economist.

Upon reaching the comfortable resi-
dence of the professor, which was situated
in Westbourne Crescent, Regent's Park,
Mercury was met at the door by a servant
who demanded his business. Mercury
tendered his card which was carried up to
the study.

The professor read with a puzzled look
the name "Mercury Deomissit," inscribed
upon the card.

"Hum," he remarked, "looks classical.
Probably one of those German professors
who still cling to the mediaeval custom of
Latinizing their names. Show him up."

Mercury entered, and saluting the pro-
fessor of the dismal science, remarked:

"Sir, I have been referred to you as
one of the greatest professors of political
economy and would like, if you have time
and convenience, to consult you concern-
ing that science and the precepts it lays
down as governing modern society. I
have traveled a great distance to investi-

ioo God 's Children

gate the condition of men here and was
sent only yesterday to you by a socialist
who proposed a very revolutionary, but
apparently very necessary remedy, for
the terrible want and suffering which at
present afflicts the majority of the people."

"A socialist," exclaimed the professor,
looking in surprise upon his aristocratic-
looking visitor. "You have been pursu-
ing your inquiries in a strange and
unreliable quarter. Those socialists are
ignorant and discontented men who
assemble in the market-place and who, in
their illogical denunciations of the right-
ful possessors of wealth, are guided
merely by malice and envy."

"Envy," rejoined Mercury, "is unlawful
when entertained for that which is not
rightfully ours, yet it seems to me that
those working people are entitled by all
the canons of justice to the wealth which
their labor creates. What you term
illogical denunciation appeared to me to
be a very logical demand, for the socialist
proved that wealth and capital are both

A Political Economist Has No Soul 101

produced by the labor of the working
class, and land I know to be God's free
gift to all his children. You speak of
rightful possessors. What right, may I
ask of you, have the rich to that which
they own?"

"Well," replied the professor, "as far as
the land is concerned, the right of the
present owners consists in the fact that
they and their ancestors have held it,
some of them, from the time when Wil-
liam of Normandy came and conquered
this country in 1066, and such a lengthy
occupation certainly confers a right."

"But if the followers of the conqueror
stole the land nine centuries ago, that
does not entitle the present holders to it.
The length of time stolen property is
kept does not lessen but rather aggravates
the heinousness of the theft; particularly
is this so in the case of land, the monop-
oly of which operates so much to the
detriment of the mass of the people.
What are their claims to the possession
of capital?"

102 God's Children

"By dint of thrift and economy the
present holders who have acquired are
certainly entitled to their property,"
replied Ananias Average.

"Thrift and economy are terms almost
synonymous with saving," replied Mer-
cury, "and I fail to see how by saving a
thing you can increase its quantity; and
furthermore, if that socialist spoke truly
about these wealthy ones called capital-
ists, they must be more noted for extrav-
agance and luxury than for the qualities
which you specify as distinguishing them
and entitling them to what they hold."

"Capital is certainly entitled to some
return," tartly remarked the economist.

"Capital, though," answered the visitor,
"is not the capitalist; the former is a
means of production, the latter the man
who controls it, and can a controller
claim a greater right than a maker?"

"Is not profit the wages of superintend-
ence, and interest the reward of risk?"
questioned the professor.

"To say that risk should be rewarded is

A Political Economist Has No Soul 103

to encourage gambling and taking risks
with wealth that is created does not
create more wealth in the aggregate,"
replied Mercury. "As to the wages of
superintendence," he continued, "they
who usually really superintend are fore-
men and overseers, and their reward is
wages truly, but the capitalist does not
and cannot superintend the vast concerns
which he owns filled with those huge
complicated tools called machines and in
which the operators are too manifold,
numerous and stupendous to be superin-
tended by one man. It is simply impos-
sible under such conditions for one man
to superintend or regulate, and when you
base their demand for their dispropor-
tionately large incomes upon the fulfil-
ment of an unachievable task you make
it plain that your premises are too ridicu-
lous to support your conclusion."

"Sir!" angrily retorted the economist,
"if you consider my opinion ridiculous I
think your presence undesirable. Leave
my office immediately!"

104 God 's Children

Mercury turned pale with contempt
and wrath. "Leave! yes, but you shall
leave with me. I have seen suffering and
vice among the ignorant, and here I see
lying and deceit where truth should be
found. I met in Whitechapel the prosti-
tutes of their bodies; here I meet a man
of intelligence who prostitutes that which
is more sacred, his reason."

The professor sprang from his seat with
a threatening gesture, but Mercury, power-
ful in his superhuman strength, towered
above him, and seizing him by the throat,
threw him out of the window. With a
loud shriek the professor fell three stories
to the pavement and ere he expired
found sufficient time to inform a police-
man that he had been thrown from his
office by a dangerous and violent revolu-
tionist. The officer dashed upstairs, but
he found the office empty.

Mercury had disappeared. In disgust
he had left the earth. He could laugh at
the conceit of the aristocrat and the
ridiculous credulity of the religious

A Political Economist Has No Soul 105

fanatic; he could sympathize with the
wretchedness of the poor and even
sorrow for the vices of the dissolute; but
he could not tolerate the lies and hypoc-
risy of political economy. The dismal
science was too much even for his
celestial patience. Upon leaving the
earth and assuming again his spirit, Mer-
cury soared upward but he did not go
far. His spirit hovered in vindictive and
terrible rage above the earth. He was
waiting for the soul of that political
economist. But he waited long and in
vain and eventually relinquished his
expectation of vengeance with regret.
He had discovered what all discrimin-
ating children of earth know — that a
political economist has no soul.

CHAPTER VIII

THE WRATH OF GOD

Dies irae, dies ilia,
Solvet saeclum in favilla ;
Teste David cum Sibilla.

— Dies Irae- Old Catholic Hymn

Mercury hurriedly entered the heav-
enly domain in such deep dejection that
many of its denizens turned to look upon
him with surprise. His face usually so
calm and joyous, bore a sad and pained
expression, and his brow was marked with
anguish and suffering. God looked with
genial amusement upon the downcast
mien of his volatile messenger and
inquired in astonishment:

"Why, Mercury, it appears that your
experiences have not pleased you."

Mercury, with a sigh, replied:

"Ah, God, your poor children down on
that earth are in a most degraded condi-
tion. There is want, misery and suffering
1 06

The Wrath of God 107

among them; they are debauched and
unclean; they war and kill and slaughter."

''Mercury," replied God, in a gentle
tone of reproof, "I fear you are mistaken.
Has your contact with those lower beings
caused you to forget that I am God and
that God does not make mistakes?
When I made that planet I placed an
ample sufficiency upon it to support the
needs of all my children. Why then
should there be want and misery there?
For every male I produced a female.
Why then should there be vice and
uncleanness? I gave to my children the
gift of reason by means of which they
might discriminate, arrange and settle
peacefully their affairs. Why then should
they war like the lower brutes?"

"You may have made well, but you
have neglected them since, and among
them there has arisen an avaricious and
ambitious few who have appropriated all
the wealth, beauty and power, leaving to
the many nothing but want, hideousness
and servitude," replied Mercury.

108 God's Children

"That is strange," replied God, begin-
ning to be interested. "Pray, Mercury,
give me your experiences in detail.',

God carelessly reclined upon a couch
of opalescent-colored clouds and listened
intently while his messenger related what
he had seen and heard.

In the beginning of the recital God was
much amused. He laughed aloud when
Mercury told him what the theologian
said, but as the story progressed he
became first serious, then sad and at
length angry.

The Great Ruler of the Universe is
seldom angry and does not become so
from trivial causes, but when he does his
wrath is terrible to behold.

A heavy ominous silence reigned
throughout his golden realm and his
happy and smiling companions hurried
from his presence and hid their faces.
He turned to Mercury, who stood shud-
dering in the presence of the Almighty
ire, and said:

"Leave me, messenger, I will myself

The Wrath of God 109

look and listen whether what you tell me
of is true."

God leaned his head upon his hand
and turned his eyes in the direction of
the earth. By a slight effort, his almighty
mind sweeping through intervening space,
he contemplated the condition of his
children.

God looked and he saw dainty ladies
with pink-white faces and sensual lips
sipping rich wines and casting sensual
looks upon the richly-dressed men who
drank and sang and smiled with them.
He saw stern, hard-faced plutocrats
frowning from club windows upon the
passing multitude; he saw luxury; he
saw pride; he saw war; he saw lust,
blood, ambition and arrogance.

God looked and he saw the pallid wife
of the workless laborer putting a cup of
cold water to the lips of her starving
child; he saw her squalid hovel and her
want-pinched face; he saw her despair-
ing husband struggling with thousands of
others as sallow-faced as himself at the

no God's Children

dock-yard gates for the work which
would provide bread for his wife and
little ones, and God saw him turn away
workless and desperate.

God looked and he was angry.

God listened and he heard soft sensu-
ous songs of pleasure; he heard laughter,
light but heartless; he heard sneers and
contempt expressed for the poor and
lowly, and hatred uttered in bitter words
by the wealth-insolvent few for the
suffering and toiling many.

God listened. He heard the deafening
roar and whirr of the mighty machinery
in thousands of factories, but rising loudly
and plainly above it the cries and groans
of the little child-slaves who tended the
machines. He heard the unuttered
prayer of woe from the soul of the fallen
woman compelled to sell herself in order
to exist; he heard the desperate blasphe-
mous De Profundis hurled at heaven by
the hopeless, starving wage-slave and he
heard it in magnanimous forgiveness, for
he is a merciful God.

The Wrath of God 1 1 1

God listened and was angry.

His broad, smooth, placid brow became
furrowed with a terrible minatory frown.
He arose, and his lofty stature, thousands
of cubits high, threw a lengthy shadow
athwart the bright and peaceful scene of
heavenly beauty. His eyes, so soft and
smiling, flashed like two blazing beacons;
his mouth, usually wreathed in indulgent
and careless smiles, curved down at the
corners as does that of the monarch of
the desert when, hungry, he seeks his prey
in the Lybian wilderness, and his long
flowing locks, which, falling about his
brow and shoulders form a golden frame
for his beautiful face arose and curled
around his head like the serpent curls
of ancient Medusa. Threateningly he
reached forth an arm, mighty as that of a
giant, graceful as that of a Grecian
athlete, toward the earth and thus he
spoke in his wrath:

"Oh, my children, misguided, sinful,
wretched and sad. Oh, my children,
avaricious, arrogant and selfish. Unto

ii2 God's Children

you I gave plenty and of it you have
produced poverty; unto you I gave purity
and peace and you have made impurity
and war; unto you I gave reason and you
have abused it so that you live in a worse
way than the beasts to whom I gave it
not.

"But I am God and I shall so will it in
the near future that those among you
who live in idleness and work not, shall
not live upon the blood and sweat of the
many who toil. For I will encourage
with my omnipotent will the spread of
that creed of hope for my children called
'socialism' and the desperate many shall
arise against the despoiling few; they
shall hurl the mighty from their high.,
places; they shall despoil the despoilers
and take unto themselves the just reward
of their labor — the wealth of the earth.

"And then when in the place of want
and misery there shall be peace and
plenty; when in the place of sighs of
slaves and cries of starving children there
shall be laughter, song and joy and peace;

The Wrath of God 113

when equality shall succeed despotism
and justice supplant partial and venal
law; when men shall work each for all,
and all for each, then will you not blas-
pheme my name when you call yourselves
God's Children.

the END

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS